simulated development project

Simulated Development Project

Fall 2007

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Introduction Purpose: To give you some experience in engaging in

participatory research and development You will be given:

o The broad outline of a problemo A development partnero A faculty advisoro A team of classmates to work with

It is up to you to:o Find out what the full context and needs areo Negotiate a proposal with the development partnero React flexibly to unforeseen eventso Build capacity with the partnering organization and communityo Evaluate outcomes and plan for sustainabilityo Provide interim and final reports

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Your development partner

Your partner has an idea of what the organizationwants, and what the needs of the community are. Thisidea may be well founded or not.

Your task is to:o Understand their perspectiveo Consider all viable solutionso Then either validate their original idea of a solution, and

make it real or persuasively recommend an alternativesolution

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Simulation details We are basing the simulated participatory research and

development on actual experience. You don’t know what the project is on day one. Information will be incomplete. Situations will change. It is up to you to:

o Manage relationshipso Manage the projecto Manage change

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Simulation details contd. Each week, you should be communicating with

your development partner. Your partner will provide feedback. In some instances, you will provide your

partner and faculty advisor with a plan (e.g.needs assessment and capacity-building plan).

We will provide simulated outcomes of thatassessment or plan.

The simulated outcome will only be as good asyour plan, so you must be meticulous aboutdetails in your plan.

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Technical solution The technical soundness of your proposed

solution is fundamental to the project successo Human, social, and institutional issues are important,

but equally important is the technology solution.o An excellent participative assessment and inspired

capacity building are for naught if the technicalsolution is not functional and robust.

o Know the domain– ICT/Computing– Human needs by domain (healthcare, agriculture, etc.)

o Know the limits of the technology

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Challenge #1

Understand the problemo Do background research on the partner

organization and the community in whichyour project will be implemented.

o Learn to ask the right questions and to collectinformation in a professional manner.

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Assignment #1 Meet with your team and discuss a strategy for addressing the

problem. Make sure you distribute the work effectivelyaccording to the strengths of your teammates.

Prepare a list of questions to ask your partner. Get feedback on your strategic plan and list of questions from

your faculty advisor. Set up a meeting with your partner and assess the problem using

your list of questions as a guide Produce your first report (due Wednesday October 3 via

BlackBoard) describing the following:o The community and partner organization you are working witho A clear articulation of problem you propose to solve (your partner

should agree with you on this)o The challenges you expect to faceo Any other details relevant to understanding the problem

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Challenge #2

Propose a solutiono Make sure the solution serves the needs of

your partner and the community.o Make sure your partner understands the

strengths, weaknesses, and costs of yourproposed solution.

o Think carefully about the sustainability ofyour proposed solution.

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Assignment #2 Meet with your team and design a solution to the problem you

proposed to solve. Make sure you get frequent feedback fromyour faculty advisor and from your partner.

Make sure you think about milestones, timeline, budget, andobservable outcomes, that you design a set of capacity-buildingmeasures to implement with your partner to create sustainablechange in the community you are working with, and that youinclude an evaluation plan to assess the project.

Produce your second report (due Wednesday October 24 viaBlackBoard) describing the following:o An executive summary of your reporto An updated understanding of the problem and the challenges you facedo Your proposed complete solution (including evaluation plan etc.)

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Etc.

Additional directions will be forthcoming later inthe semester

The project will culminate in a final report and finalpresentation due during finals week.

Included in your final presentation will be ademonstration of your working system.

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Project Haiti Team: Sonja Duric, Evan Hoke, Katherine Menzies, Alif Sajan, Sataja Parulekar,

Wendy Shutt Faculty Advisor: M. Bernardine Dias Partner: Ms. Sarah Belousov ([email protected]), hospital administrator Partner Organization: Hopital Albert Schweitzer (http://www.hashaiti.org/) Community: Population of Deschapelles, Haiti Synopsis: People from the surrounding mountainous communities walk 4-6 hours

each way to get to the hospital. Once they reach the hospital, they stand in line forhours to see a doctor and often return home unable to see a doctor because the line wastoo long. The hospital has requested you to propose a scheduling system that allowsits community health centers to work with the hospital to schedule patients so thatadequate care can be provided to all.

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Project Palau Team: Madeleine Pitsch, Jessica Kang, Wilson Tsao, Ed Yampratoom, Ermine Teves Faculty Advisor: Joe Mertz Partner: Kevin Purtell ([email protected]) playing the role of several

Ministry of Health staff people Partner Organization: Palau Ministry of Health

(http://www.palaugov.net/minhealth/mohealth.html) Community: Palau Synopsis: The Ministry of Health (MOH) works to build a “Healthy Palau in

Healthful Environment.” The MOH is subdivided into two bureaus. The Bureau ofHospital and Clinical Services provides emergency and special services. The Bureauof Public Health Services provides both primary and preventative services. You willbe working within Public Health to help them use technology better to meet theirinformation management needs.

The Numbers and Labels ofPovertyJoe MertzFall 2007

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Take away points For any ICTD project, it is important to

measure success. But measurement is fraught with pitfalls

o Assessment measures can themselves be (orbecome) negative labels.

o Good baseline data can be hard to obtaino Comparison across communities is difficult

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The challenge as researchers…

Academic / bureaucratic self-gratification:Excerpted from John McKnight article in the Other Sidehttp://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd/servanthood.html

"Mrs. Jones, we’re from such-and-such. We’re doing a survey. Can you tellme how far you went in school?"

She looks down a little and says, "Well, I just got through tenth grade." Sothey write on the clipboard, "Dropout. Two years." Not "educated tenyears" but "dropout two years.”

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Then they say, "I wonder if you could read this to me."She looks at it, embarrassed. "No. I can’t read.""Illiterate," they write. Then they say, "Just now you squinted your eyes. Do

you have trouble seeing?""Yes. I think I need glasses.""Visual deficit," they write. "Do you have any children?""Three daughters, ages fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen.""Do any of them have children?"The fourteen-year old has a child, and the eighteen-year-old has a child."Teenage pregnancy," goes on the clipboard.

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Then they say, "We’re going to get you some help. Just wait.We’re going to make a service center here." And they cash intheir needs inventory for a GED dropout training center andthree people who work there, for an illiteracy program withfour staff people, for a neighborhood optometrist who isresponsive to the community, and for a new teenage-pregnancy counseling program that gets the schools moremoney.

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Why are the poor poor? What are the common perceptions and

misconceptions of why poverty exists? It is okay to be non-PC and/or represent

views that you don’t personally hold to betrue.

Our intention is to illuminate the ideas aboutthe poor that exist in our culture, so that inthis course we can assess their validity.

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Labeling the poor Herbert J. Gans, in The War Against the Poor describes the

labeling of the poor. Labels:

o Descriptions of people based on imagined knowledgeo Used primarily to differentiate people in a negative or pejorative

wayo “they may extrapolate from small kernels of truth about some

people to large imagined untruths that are applied to everyone in agroup.”

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Terms Labels should be distinguished from terms Terms are meant to describe, not stigmatize Problem: terms are often turned from being

descriptive to being negativeo E.g.

– Welfare recipient

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Fairly new labels Illegal aliens Terrorists Bottom of the pyramid Emerging markets Emerging regions

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What associations do youhave with… Welfare queen Working poor Underclass

How is the “deserving” differentiated fromthe “undeserving” poor?

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Label life-cycle1. Label-maker: academics, journalists,

practitioners working for or against the poor.2. Alarmists persuade the general public that the

labeled is a threat. Counters describe themagnitude.

3. The populace must find it compelling enoughfor it to enter common usage. (Compelling, but not necessarily true.)

Source: Herbert J. Gans, in The War Against the Poor

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Which is more prevalent inthe United States? Dying from a firearm assault or suicide?

Dying in a bicycle accident or alcoholpoisoning?

Dying from contact with hot tap water orfrom a flood?

Source: http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm

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Beware “availability bias” People make estimates of the frequency of an

event or the prevalence within a populationbased on how easily they can bring instancesto mind.

What you notice, or has been brought to yourattention, does not necessarily reflect the baserate.

Therefore be leery of making frequency orprevalence assertions without objective data.

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Bottom line concerningthe poor Watch for preconceived notions & labels Question common assumptions Collect real data

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Options instudying poverty

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There are many ways tostudy poverty Describe a situation Do an analysis Develop a model Perform a needs assessment Conduct a feasibility study Document baseline data Develop a prototype Test a prototype

For each of these, we need to measure data

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There are many ways tostudy poverty Describe a situation Do an analysis Develop a model Perform a needs assessment Conduct a feasibility study Document baseline data Develop a prototype Test a prototype

For each of these, we need to measure dataHow?

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Measuring poverty For any research we intend to do, we need

assessment data. Of course what data we need depends on

what we are trying to address But it also depends on

o What data existso What is measurable

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Lots of choices - scale At what granularity can you measure?

o Globalo Countryo Stateo Countyo Cityo Neighborhoodo Householdo Individual

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Lots of choices - indicators What indicators can you use as a measure?

o Incomeo Consumptiono Educationo Healtho Access to serviceso Risko Vulnerabilityo Social exclusiono Access to social capitalo Etc.

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Lots of choices - collection How do you find/collect the data?

o Country-level Censuso Multi-country compositeso Regional/state/city datao Local / individual surveys

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Interesting example… Is it more expensive to be rich or poor?

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Suburbs of Mumbai (Bombay)

1.2x$0.24$0.28Rice ($/kg)

10x$2$20Diarrhea Meds

2x2.54-5Phone (cents/min)

37x$0.011$0.43Water (100 gal)

60-75x12-18%600-1000%Credit (APR)

RatioWarden RoadDharavi(shantytown)

Source: Eric Brewer, talk given at Carnegie Mellon Fall 2006

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Consider another measureThe Poverty Line E.g. Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area data

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Metropolitan Pittsburgh What is your impression of poverty in

Greater Pittsburgh / Western Pennsylvania? How do you think it compares with the 50

largest metropolitan areas in the US? What is your perception of the conditions of

African Americans vs. white populations inthis region?

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Pittsburgh MSA Median Household income (1999)

o Blacks - $22,271 (rank: 50th)o Whites - $39,025 (rank: 50th)

Per capita income (1999)o Blacks - $13,176 (rank: 46th)o Whites - $21,721 (rank: 49th)

Source: 2000 census, presented in Black-White Benchmarks for the Pittsburgh MSE,Bangs et al. (2004). Can be found at:http://www.ucsur.pitt.edu/Benchmarks%202004.htm

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What is the value ofhousehold incomeversus per capitaincome?

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What does rankindicate in terms ofpoverty?

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What $22,271 mean inabsolute terms?

How do we assesshow much of aproblem that is?

What other measurecan we use to indicatepoverty more directly?

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Pittsburgh MSA Poverty rate

o Blacks - 31% (rank: 3)o Whites - 9% (rank: 4)

Source: 2000 census, presented in Black-White Benchmarks for the Pittsburgh MSE,Bangs et al. (2004). Can be found at:http://www.ucsur.pitt.edu/Benchmarks%202004.htm

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Whoo Hoo! We arealmost number one!

Wait, is 3 and 4 goodor bad?

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Whoo Hoo! We arealmost number one!

Wait, is 3 and 4 goodor bad?

What does a “PovertyRate” measure?

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US Govt. Poverty Line Devised in early 60s Took Dept of Agriculture guideline for food

costs when funds are low and multiplied by 3(typical share of food budget)o I.e. food was then typically 33% of a household

budget Since then, adjusted for inflation.

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What problems can yousee? How might it overstate poverty? How might it understate poverty?

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Poverty line critiques Overstates poverty:

o Share of food in budget now around 1/6o Does not take into account public assistance

Understates:o Expenses of today’s life are understated,

including child care, transportation. Is absolute, instead of relative

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Difficulties of comparison How do you compare rates in different areas.

o Consider the cost of living in Pittsburgh versusSan Francisco.

o How do you compare poverty rates inPittsburgh with Phuket?– Currency exchange rates?– Purchasing Power Parity?– Absolute or Relative?

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Difficulty of cross-culturalcomparison example In TCinGC program, what is a fair stipend

for students?o Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesiao Ebeye, Marshall Islandso Koror, Palauo Hambantota, Sri Lankao Puducherry, India

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Challenges to measuring Identifying appropriate measures Gathering reliable data

o Entrée into the communityo Finding the right peopleo Gaining trust to receive accurate data

Politicso Ideologyo Budget

Interpreting data

simulated development project

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